*
A Different time. A Different place. A Different purpose. The same unchanging obligation. I walk forward, the grey sky overhead warning me off the coming storm. The rest of the reconstruction unit have spread themselves across the length and breadth of the city. Some of them are checking the buildings, making sure that nothing is out of place. Others are combing through the libraries and museums, scanning and digitizing everything they find, so that they may be reconstructed when the humans awaken. My purpose is to scout out the surrounding area, searching for any potentially hazardous obstacles. Not that there is anything in this silent city that could take down a re-mech.
A short message pops up on my HUD, reading, “All sectors cleared. Time to detonation... One hour fifteen minutes. All re-mechs are to move to their assigned positions before blast detonation.”
I feel an odd sense of relief, as I can finally leave this odious place. I begin the slow trek to the nearest city exit, eventually arriving at a dilapidated hospital. The topography of the area has changed since the last scan by the geographical satellite, necessitating another uplink with the mainframe. As my body links up with the system, I set my auditory sensors to monitor for any potential threats, just in case. Less than a minute later, my sensors detect the presence of multiple hostiles near my position. I open my eyes, staring in shock at the three humans standing before me.
Automatically, my voice calls out, “Humans detected trying to enter level-1 danger zone. Analysing chance of incurring fatal injuries… analysing… analysis complete. Chance is one in three. Activating Straitjacket protocol. Removing humans to nearest level-9 safety zone. Forced removal authorized. Engaging primary and secondary offensive programs. Calibrating bionics sensor. Releasing non-lethal munitions lock. Restricting handling strength to twenty-five percent. Correlating threat levels… threat levels minimal. Engaging all active targets.”
I reach toward the nearest human, hoping to subdue him before he injures himself in a brash act. Suddenly, a warning flashes across my HUD: “Unknown energy spike detected. Take cautionary measures.”
I search for the source. The boy? No, he is paralysed from shock and fear. The old man? Doubtful, as he currently on the floor clutching his chest. If it is not coming from them, then who? Perhaps it's the steely eyed female. Her illuminated gaze pierces through to my core and, for the first time in my existence, I feel true fear. She raises her hand, whilst muttering something to herself. To my multi-spectrum sensors, she appears to be surrounded by a glowing halo of violet light, which pulses in rhythm with her steady heartbeat. She raises her hand higher and, in defiance of the laws of physics, I begin to rise in response.
I rise higher and higher, apparently at the woman's whim. Another message, this one in bright red, signifying a catastrophic error or terminal situation. “Warning, outer hull damage rising. Core exposed. Time to total systems failure: one hundred seconds. Uploading program ‘Last Testament’ to mainframe for destruction report.”
I can feel my body breaking, as the tiny human before me continues to break the laws of nature. There is no remorse in her shining eyes, only cold-hearted determination. The boy is screaming something now, though my malfunctioning auditory sensors prevent my understanding. In a sudden movement, he tackles her to the ground, the violet aura disappearing as soon as he touches her.
For a moment, I feel relief.
Then I remember about the thirty feet of air between me and the hard concrete.
However, my mind is spared from the inevitable impact, as my systems have decided that I have sustained too much damage, and are shutting down for repairs. I approach the ground at a terminal velocity, the darkness claiming me inches away from the sturdy floor.
“Forcefully cancelling memory ZZG-867 due to external concerns. Medium tectonic disturbance detected, earthquake imminent. Please take cover...”
For the third time in so many hours, Maloch snapped back to reality. He had reached the rock maze, with the items necessary for saving Kingston hidden away somewhere inside. A sudden tremor underfoot reminded Maloch of the impending danger. The shock had dislodged one of the many stone pillars that made up the area's namesake.
Without pausing to think of the consequences, Maloch crouched down, shielding Kingston's frail body with his titanic frame. The first pillar fell, creating a domino effect that rippled throughout the area. Maloch felt each impact, as a multitude of rocks and debris rained down from above. He felt his back-plate begin to buckle, as the quake reached the height of its intensity. The freshly sealed cracks in his hull ripped open once more, and his core worked double-time to register each new injury.
A readout on his HUD showed his damage percentage sky-rocket, from the manageable twenty-nine percent to the disastrous seventy-four percent. As the dust cleared and the last aftershock faded away, Maloch had a sudden feeling of being watched, though it was gone before his sensors could confirm it.
He looked down at the old man in his arms. Kingston’s breath had grown ragged and his face had taken on a deathly hue. Maloch could most likely measure his time remaining in minutes now. With a mechanical groan, Maloch stood up, his buckled back-plate protesting against the sudden movement.
They had been lucky -if such a human construct really existed- as the majority of the rocks had missed them completely. However, the fragile maze was gone, leaving behind massive piles of rubble that would take hours to navigate around and even longer to shovel aside. Maloch, for all his technological wonder, was at a loss at what to do.
“The most logical thing to do here would be to abandon the dying human and continue on to the oasis. There is no reason for me to place myself in further risk in order to save the life of one insignificant human. And if the others still live, I would be a greater help to them unburdened.”
It was a treacherous thought, and would have earned him an immediate deactivation before the Great Sleep. However, even though he was programmed to prioritize human life above all else, he had ways and means of finding loopholes in his programming. He doubted that even his creators knew about his ability to cheat his own built-in reasoning. If they had, they most likely would have never let him leave the factory floor.
It was at that time that a memory rose unbidden, a memory of a young man who had approached him even after being threatened and who had given him a name. Against all reason, Maloch began to search for a route to the medicinal plants, despite his logic core telling him otherwise.
“My emotion engine really must be severely compromised for me to be thinking like this. To remain like this is a liability. I should endeavour to find a repair station and return to normal.”
Despite this, there was a small part of him that thought differently, “However, it is refreshing, to be able to make my own decisions, and not always have to follow the most logical course of actions.”
“Error. Unable to discern a route towards target. Geographical data has been altered. Estimated time to reconstructing area map... two hours. Error. Unidentified energy signature is nearing your location, please take evasive manoeuvres.”
Maloch looked up from his brooding slump, only to see a multi-coloured luminescent ball of light drift lazily towards him. It was about a foot in diameter, and was partially transparent. At first, it seemed to move in random, inconsistent ways, but after watching it for a while, it seemed to follow a definitive pattern. It wafted over to Kingston's prone form, changing its primary colour to green as it did so. Maloch stepped forward, placing himself between the unknown entity and his companion. It ignored his existence, phasing right through him as it neared its target. At the sight of Kingston's state, it turned bright red and swelled to the size of a small boulder. It hovered above him, bouncing up and down in an urgent manner.
“You are the one who led us to the caves last night, if I’m not mistaken.”
Even as the words left him he felt foolish. He was talking to a ball of light that was most likely caused by some local phenomenon. He
really needed to repair his emotion engine.
The strange sphere of light turned banana yellow and returned to its original size. Judging from its change, Maloch guessed that he had been right. The creature returned to Kingston's side, somehow managing to look worried without the aid of a face or body.
“Do you have a desire to help him?” There was no harm in speaking with it, he decided, after having run a best and worst case scenario program.
The sprite turned an incandescent pink and began bobbing up and down in furious agreement.
“I see. I may be able to heal him, but I need to find a certain area. It should have numerous flowers that don't appear anywhere else in the desert. Do you think you can help me?”
He did not expect the glowing ball of luminescence to understand him, and even if it did he had no reason to believe that it would help him. He had simply run out of options, and talking with the illuminated sphere was somewhat comforting.
A moment later he was surprised when the orb took on a sapphire hue and rose into the atmosphere, darting this way and that until it had found what it had been looking for. Lowering itself to the ground once more, it ‘turned’ to Maloch and resumed its original multi-coloured appearance.
“Its default state?” thought Maloch.
Maloch picked up the weakened Kingston and followed after the sphere, as it wove in and out of the rubble. At first, it seemed to choose the most improbable routes and the most out of reach paths, but after they failed to reach a dead-end, Maloch guessed that it had carefully mapped out the best route to take.
When the creature was waiting at a fork in the path, Maloch took the opportunity to scan it with his optical sensor. After several seconds of referencing and cross-referencing, his core database came back with nothing. It was not in any private, military or top-secret databases that existed nor could it be catalogued with any known plant, animal or inorganic phenomenon. To put it simply, it was not of this world, and no-one had ever seen any of its like before.
“Perhaps it has evolved into an evolutionary niche created by the massive amount of pollution in the atmosphere? Some kind of quasi-sentient gas based life-form? No, if it had evolved in the presence of pollution its contamination score would be higher. My scans say that it has a 0.00 percent contaminant saturation, whereas even the common worm has at least 9.50 percent. Whatever it is, it cannot be explained by science alone.”
Maloch followed the iridescent ball of light for several minutes, as it slowly made its way through the former maze. On more than one occasion, it would stop and hover in mid-air, apparently unsure of the path forward, but it would always quickly ascend into the atmosphere and scan the area before returning to Maloch reassured. Soon, Maloch began to notice a pattern in its constant size and colour changes, noting that they functioned almost like a primitive language.
From then on, he began to compile a database on every one of the possible size/colour combinations, assigning specific meaning to each one as appeared, using context as his translation guide. For instance, when the creature was stuck or unsure, it would deflate in size and turn red while its luminescence dimmed. Once it had found the correct path, it would increase in size and turn a mixture of gold and white, and it would shine brighter than before. Eventually, the basic database was arranged as follows:
A) “Warm” colours symbolize happiness; “Dark” colours symbolize displeasure.
B) A decrease in size meant a negative connotation in regards to the emotion stipulated in A, an increase meant a positive connotation.
C) The intensity of the light matched the intensity of the emotion or feeling as stated in A and B.
Using these simple rules, Maloch was able to somewhat accurately decode the entity’s mood and thinking pattern. Now able to translate the creature's actions, Maloch noticed that it behaved in quite human ways. It became frustrated, happy, relieved and unsure based on its surroundings, a characteristic that most humans shared. The will-o'-the-wisp eventually stopped at the edge of a clearing in the rubble, one side dropping away into a sheer cliff. The creature was glowing brightly with multi-toned hues of yellow. It looked like a miniature sun, and going by Maloch's database, it was extremely happy about something. He was right, as he soon found out when he entered the clearing.
Miraculously, the plants scattered around the area were undamaged, and in many cases foot-wide rocks had missed them by mere inches. Laying Kingston's still body down on a nearby slab, Maloch set to work, harvesting the necessary plants and creatures from the clearing. Linking up to the global medical database, he was able to speedily prepare the concoction, his nimble fingers never messing up during the delicate extractions. After a few minutes of mixing and heating, the coagulant tonic was ready.
Carefully, Maloch got the old man to swallow the foul mixture. His body naturally rejected the concoction, but little by little it was manoeuvred down his throat.
For several minutes nothing happened, well, nothing happened externally. However, to Maloch's fine-tuned vision, the internal bleeding soon congealed and became non-lethal once more. Next came the neurotoxin, which had been made by combining the venom of three nearby species of spiders that were known to live near the aforementioned plants. The dosage required was far more tricky, as too little would bring no result and too much could cause permanent brain damage or paralysis. With any luck it would bring Kingston out of his coma. However, the neurotoxin had to be injected directly into the cerebrospinal fluid, so Maloch was forced to use an implement from his past life.
It looked like a three pronged needle, extending from his multi-use index finger. It had originally been used to inject adrenalin into fellow soldiers so that they could keep up with hours of continuous fighting, but some of the more morally corrupt generals had used them as assassination tools. Since re-mechs generally were seen as harmless and docile, they would be able to approach their target without much difficulty. Slotting the toxin capsule into a hole in his palm, Maloch rolled up Kingston onto his side and injected the poison directly into the base of his skull.
The old man soon began to convulse as the toxin spread throughout his system, his body unsure of how to deal with the foreign agent. His eyes suddenly shot open, and he lay there, staring at nothing. His eyes then rolled back, apparently unsatisfied with whatever they had seen. His body jerked once or twice more, and then he was silent.
Nothing, for several seconds, just the constant whine of Maloch's built in heart monitor exclaiming the rapidly slowing heart rate. Then, without warning, Ba-dump. Ba-dump. The sound grew louder and more rhythmic, as Kingston was brought back to the land of the living once more. Slowly, the old man opened his weary eyes, which began to fill with tears at the sight of Maloch's figure.
“So, It looks like you've saved me again, friend.” The voice was little more than a whisper.
“Friend?” replied Maloch, savouring the sound of it. It had been a very, very long time since he had last heard its ilk.
“Yes, friend. The way I see it, we’ve travelled together, fought together and came damn near close to dying together. And if that doesn’t make us friends, then I don’t know what will.”
Maloch nodded, his emotion engine telling him that he was feeling joy. Like the word ‘friend’, it was something he had not experienced in decades.
“Agreed. Now, you have sustained some fairly serious injuries. Even with the medical treatment I have provided I would advise resting here for at least a few hours.”
Kingston, grunting with exertion, managed to get to his feet. His abdomen still hurt and the world spun when he moved his head too quickly, but he could not afford to waste time. For all he knew Barsch and Alza were in peril, and only he and Maloch could save them. After Maloch told him of the earthquake, his resolve was only further cemented.
“No, we don’t have the luxury of time. Our other friend... friends... could be in danger. We need to move, if that’s okay with you?” Kingston looked into the golden eyes above him, already
telling himself that he would set off regardless of Maloch’s answer.
“If that is your wish.”
Maloch turned to leave the clearing, but stopped when he remembered how he had gotten there. He looked around fruitlessly for a few minutes, noting Kingston’s querying stare. The will-o-wisp -his miraculous guide- was nowhere to be found. Before he left, however, he turned his eyes towards the heavens. For an instant, there appeared to be two suns in the sky. And then the moment passed, and the second faded from sight.
“Thank you, little one.”
“Maloch?” asked Kingston in a kind voice.
“I apologise. I thought that- never mind, it is not important. I have plotted a course to the exit. If you would follow me?”
As they backtracked through the broken stone maze, Maloch filled Kingston in on what had happened while he had been unconscious. However, Maloch kept the events of his recovered memories to himself, as well as the realizations that he had gained from them. He did, however, explain about the mysterious entity that had helped them, and how he had been able to decode its strange movements This fact seemed to genuinely impress the old man. Eventually, they came to the exit, the low hanging sun creating a mesmerizing spectacle as they finally left the maze behind.
Awakening Page 98